Latino sergeant attacked on Jan. 6 'sick' over Republicans welcoming Trump at Capitol

Aquilino Gonell, a former law enforcement officer who was nearly crushed to death on Jan. 6, 2021, at the hands of the mob that stormed the Capitol, still carries shards from the building's tunnel entrance.

The Iraq War veteran showed those shards in an interview Thursday on MSNBC’s "The ReidOut" to remind the public about the day when rioters stormed the Capitol, stirred by then-President Donald Trump’s lie that the election had been stolen.

But he was also hoping maybe they could be shown to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, “because last week he was hosting the guy who sent the mob to tear down and knock down the doors of the Capitol where I almost died," Gonell said.

Gonell, a Dominican American, had to undergo physical and mental rehabilitation for his injuries. He said that Johnson and other Republicans who welcomed Trump are alive today because of his and his colleagues' actions Jan. 6, "not because the guy they are receiving as a hero. He didn't do anything to keep them safe. For God's sake, he is the one who sent them to the Capitol and here they are embracing him like nothing happened."

His injuries forced him to retire in December 2022.

Trump made his first visit to the Capitol on June 13 and was given a rousing welcome, applauded even by some lawmakers who had condemned him following the deadly Capitol violence. The deaths and attacks on police officers were forgotten history in the reunion at the Capitol during which some lawmakers had an early birthday celebration for Trump with cake.

Gonell said that he and the officers he remains in touch with "felt sick" to see the senators last week "holding hands with the same person who made (them) run for their lives Jan. 6"

"It's like an abusive